LINGUIST List 9.481

Sun Mar 29 1998

Qs: Preverb, Unaccusative, "up", Teaching Ling

Editor for this issue: Anita Huang <anitalinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Edith A Moravcsik, collective and perfect
2. bingfu, Inventory of unaccusative verbs
3. radical, "up"
4. WOMENinTEC, Teaching Linguistics to High School Students

In languages that have preverbs, is anyone familiar with cases where a
preverb having a COLLECTIVE or ASSOCIATIVE meaning developed a
RESULTATIVE or PERFECTIVE function in the verbal system?

Is anyone familiar with any cases where a preverb having RESULTATIVE or
PERFECTIVE meaning gradually bleached to a general meaning of 
+INTENSIFICATION?

I am interested in this because these pathways of development are
sometimes postulated for the historical development of the prefix ga- in
Germanic. You can respond to me directly at gdaviscsd.uwm.edu
Thanks in advance.

Garry Davis

Dear netters,

 	The semantic scope of unaccusative verbs varies 
from language to language. In Chinese, it contains tree 
types of verbs: presence verbs ('to be'
'exist'), appearance verbs ('come' 'arrive') and 
disapearance verbs ('disappear', 'vanish', 'die'). 

	If there-construction is taken as one
criterion for unaccusative verbs, then, 
dissapearance verbs are not unaccusative verbs, as 
shown below:

	There appeared a man in the hill.
But	* There disappeared a man in the hill.


	Now, my question is:
	
	How about other languages? Does your native 
language have patterns with Chinese or English? 

	Any information will be most welcome
and I will make a summary after I get sufficient responses.

	Thanks!

			Bingfu Lu
			USC

This should be an easy one for you linguists. I'm an ESL teacher in
Korea. Recently our class made a list of idioms that contain the
preposition "up."

line up; start up; make up; wake up; stand up; work up; take up; break
up; listen up; and so forth...

my questions are:

1. What is the function of the preposition in these idioms? 
2. Is there a technical linguistic name for such a construction?
3. Is there any commonality of meaning in the use of the word "up" in
these examples?

All responses would be greatly appreciated!

Dear Linguists,

I am interested in finding information on how to teach linguistics to high
school students. I am a graduate student in TESOL at NYU. Any help in this
matter would be appreciated.

Sincerely,

Ms. Tommy McDonell